BRIDGETON — The city on Monday lowered water levels in East Lake as a precaution against possible catastrophic flooding, public works director Dean Dellaquila said Wednesday.

The move is nothing new, and officials have done so several times over the years. This week’s adjustment followed two consecutive weekends of heavy precipitation - more than 18 inches of snow Dec. 19 and 20, then the Christmas weekend’s torrential rain.

“We get a lot of water that comes into the lake from the north,” Dellaquila said. If East Lake is overcome, he said, “I’ve been told that we’re done.”

“We’d rather be safe than sorry...and err on the side of caution,” he explained. “We prepare ourselves for the worst.”

Dellaquila said the city does the same with the “Raceway” at Sunset Lake.

Levels will soon return to normal, he said, partly with the help of a rain/snow mix forecast for Thursday.

In the summer of 2008, when the News last discussed the issue, state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) officials said there was no need for the city to lower the water level.

Then DEP spokeswoman Karen Hershey then said the dam there would hold flood waters.

A DEP spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday
about high water levels that may make it necessary to lower the water
level.

City resident Carol Kirshenbaum said doing so devastates the lake’s ecosystem. She has spoken against the move in the past.

Kirshenbaum runs Quack’s Corner, a sanctuary for abused and homeless animals. She said lowering water levels increases by about 95 percent the number of injured and hungry animals she helps.

“There may be an underlying reason for it, but I don’t know what it is,” she said.

Other species suffer as well, she continued. At times, she said, “I was spending over $100 a month feeding the (animals).”

Matt Blake of the American Littoral Society, a coastal conservation group, said it would be hard to determine whether lowering the water level creates a devastating and long-term impact.

“The residents are justly concerned,” Blake said, “and I would be too.”

But he said researchers would have to gather data on the history, species and habitat there to truly help gauge effects.

Some species may be harmed by a water level change, while others may benefit. In addition, such effects may not even be measurable short term, or within the lifetime of the current human population, Blake said.

All in all, he said, “It depends on the species you’re managing (the lake) for.”

A main concern to him in any case are bald eagle and osprey populations.

“We are an overwintering area for eagles coming down from New England,” Blake said.

Reductions in fish populations may become a concern for individual eagles, he explained.

But they are very mobile and have their choice, particularly in this area, of water bodies. Blake said the current cloudiness of Sunset Lake and that in murky streams makes it hard for them to spot and snatch fish, whereas the relatively clear waters of other bodies create better targets.

He added that he’s not sure if lowering East Lake’s level will reduce the fish population there.